The Jungle Book

songbook from the 1967 movie

This is one of my favorite Disney films in terms of the music.
The soundtrack featured three prominant jazz musicians of the day:
Phil Harris voiced Baloo the bear.
Louis Prima voiced King Louie the orangutan.
George Sanders voiced Shere Khan the tiger.

The jazziest song on the soundtrack is "The Monkey Song."
Louie Prima delivers his usual lively performance,
and Phil Harris gets so worked up he has to be brought down to Earth.

A male quartet sings "The Vulture Song."
The characters were modeled after a typical British Invasion band,
But the song is sung in delightful four-part barbershop harmony.

~ FURTHER READING ~

Terry Gilkyson originally wrote songs for the movie, but he and the script writers were a little too accurate for Disney's taste. That is to say, they were true to the dark mood of the original Rudyard Kipling stories. So, along with a new script, Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman were brought in to write new songs. However, one of Gilkyson's songs survived, capturing the desired light-hearted mood. Turns out it was the one that was nominated for an Oscar: "The Bare Necessities."